How to Gain More Distance for Golf by Building Stronger Glutes

GOLFFOREVER's simple golf exercises can provide the key to improving your golf distance

Do you want longer distance with your golf game?

The strongest muscles in the body? The gluteal muscles (glutes), which are the group of three muscles that make up the buttocks.

Man hitting golf club

Your glutes stabilize your hips and pelvis. This helps support your lower back. The biggest of the three, the Gluteus Maximus, also functions as a powerful hip extensor and lateral rotator.

Golf is all about rotation and good hip rotation has a component of hip extension. That means the two go hand in hand.

HOW YOUR GLUTES IMPACT YOUR GOLF DISTANCE

It’s easy to see the Gluteus Maximus in action in runners and jumpers as they stride and drive the legs downward and backward to propel the body powerfully forward. This muscle’s function may not be as obvious in your golf swing.

But to be clear: the Gluteus Maximus is extremely important to producing those long, towering drives you see Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy hit with regularity.

Professional golfers like DJ and Rory spend significant time in the gym performing hip extension movements. These include squats, deadlifts, hip thrusters, kettlebell swings, and Olympic lifts. They do these exercise to develop explosive hip extension. That makes it so they can transition this power into the rotational elements of their swing. That is how golf pros are able to maximize their distance.

https://youtu.be/lkXd0RmvDrQ

Ready to start your FREE TRIAL to the ULTIMATE DIGITAL GOLF FITNESS PROGRAM?

For most amateur golfers, however, it may come as a surprise that these types of exercises which don’t replicate the swing have such a direct impact on it.

The important thing to understand. The more power you have in your hips, the greater your ability to create rotational speed and energy in your swing. And while these types of exercises don’t mimic the golf swing itself, they produce the same muscle firing patterns in the most effective way possible.

That means by doing these exercises consistently and in the proper manner, they can have a significant effect on your ability to generate more clubhead speed.

HOW TO GET STARTED IMPROVING YOUR GOLF DISTANCE

woman performing the golf bridge exercise

Before plunging into advanced lifting skills (where GOLFFOREVER is also a great resource), we strongly recommend you first learn the “Bridge.” It’s an easy and safe foundational hip extension exercise which is part of GOLFFOREVER’s Daily Routines.

It reproduces the mechanics of more advanced lifts and teaches you how to stabilize your core and support your lower back. And it remains useful even as you progress because it can be altered for difficulty in a variety of ways to keep you moving forward.

https://youtu.be/XAsClZ6CCH8

When you’re ready for a more advanced exercise, try the kettle swing. This simple exercise incorporates a hip hinge movement. When done correctly, the kettle swing is a great exercise to build explosive hip power.

With a little bit of work, you'll be well on your way to developing strong, powerful glutes. This will set the foundation for explosive hip extension and a lot more clubhead speed on your tee shots.

So, are you ready to develop strong glutes?